Links and Stories and falderol

Remember my friend Charity? Yeah, she's speaking at TEDmed. That's how cool she is.

I am less cool, but still have an Internet presence- so check this out.

That's it for links, here's the stories:
This weekend I was being project manager extraordinaire for the Continuing Professional Development weekends at GSMD. This was the first of the new school year, so there were a few hiccups, but mostly things went well. Amongst the hiccups was the fact that the entire stash of tea and lunch supplies had gone on walkabouts. I had a little bit of a panic about that because TEA IS VERY IMPORTANT to English people. Fortunately the new bar manager thought it would be just fine to let me loose in the little-used commercial kitchen in the basement of the dormitory. So we used proper plates and tea cups and I got to use the DISHWASHER!

The dishwasher was very exciting, I'm not really sure why- but I got a big kick out of it. I would suppose that it is a fairly standard commercial dishwasher- you put things on trays, slide them into the machine, and then pull the handle down and wait for it to stop steaming before opening it again. But the mugs! They come out warm! And that was enough to keep me happy. Though I will say that is was a bit creepy hanging out in a deserted kitchen by myself with very few lights on. (Fortunately I had the dishwasher to keep me company...)

On Sunday I had a run-in with another electrical appliance- in this case it was an electric lock on a set of doors. I'm not really sure why this door has an electric lock, but in order to get in to the performance space in the basement (which is where the workshop is held) you have to get this tiny little key that will release this intense lock at the top of the doors. What I know NOW is that once you have unlocked the doors, you have to push them in and hold them there for a bit, because if you don't the doors shut and lock themselves again. Since I didn't know that I blithely let them shut behind me while I went to the far side of the room to turn the lights on. When I tried to come back I realized I was stuck, looked around for some sort of lock release inside the room (unfathomably, there isn't one), then grabbed a chair and proceeded to wait until someone showed up. (Who gets locked inside a room??) It was Sunday morning in a student bar, so I wasn't at all sure how long I would have to wait, but I was lucky and only stuck for about 15 minutes. Jose showed up with a bunch of equipment for another project and I slid the key under the door so that he could let me out once he was done laughing.

Falderol:

A month ago or so I was walking home from work via the long, long, long route and ended up at an art gallery near the OXO tour that was having some sort of exhibit about eco-art and recycled materials. There was a small handful of people sitting on the floor on the ornate canvas floor covering doing little handicrafts so I wandered in and when they asked if I'd like to make anything I said "yes!" and learned how to appliqué. This is what I came up with- it is an old green sports T-shirt appliquéd with sari fabric and a yellow fleece blanket. It took me about 2 hours, during which I didn't get any of my work done and my back started hurting from all of that hunching over- but I was so pleased with myself by the end and much calmer than I had been. I love London so hard.

Mini-Update

I can't decide if I'm being clever by taking some time off because I'm clearly a bit sick, or if I'm just being a lazy bum and now I'm *so* bored because all of the excitement and awesome busy-ness of last week is over.

On the one hand, I am now caught up with sleep! Which is a good thing, because I had been working on about four hours a night. On the other hand, I am now a bit cranky and not doing those work things that I ought to.

"Work Things I Ought To Be Doing" includes writing some blogs to catch you up on last week. A quick re-cap: I arrived on Monday, on Tuesday I had work and rehearsals for The Skriker, Wednesday was the tykes, Thursday was 12 straight hours rehearsing and then performing the first night of the play, Friday was the play again, and then Saturday and Sunday were another improvisation weekend followed by a baroque orchestra gig. Whew! On Sunday night I travelled home with Sarahbeth and we ended up chattering away at each other on the train platform for over an hour. At one point an uncontrollable, massive grin spread across my face; "I love my life!" I said, bouncing up and down a little and trying not to drop my bass, which was a bit unsteady on its new wheels that I found in a trash heap.

The gig went well enough that on Monday I got a text asking if I could play again next week. Exciting! Also, I am no longer teaching the Kids on Wednesdays: only Tuesdays now. This is a great relief and I am pleased because 8 hours of tykes followed immediately by an hour of the kids made me stressed out and cranky.

So that's the quick update. There are two more game events coming up soon, which I am very excited about. One I am crewing for (a zombie hunt on Hampstead Heath...) and one that is a small test run of 15 people/picnic. And you can't really go wrong with a picnic.

Such a cool life

I worked all this weekend project managing one of the continuing education weekends that the Professional Development department does. It was nice: I carried a lot of equipment and got to chase people down about actually paying for said weekend, met lots of interesting people, got to go food shopping with someone else's money (my favorite! So many cheeses!), and sketched. Besides the fact that I was underground without windows for two days it was a good way to pass the weekend and get paid for it.

On Saturday night I went to a dance improvisation performance. It was...interesting. If nothing else it reinforced the fact that I have opinions about improvisation. A couple of pieces were extraordinary- one guy tied himself to a chair with his shoe lace and eventually crushed the chair by falling over it so many times. He clearly had a clowning background and was wonderful. Eventually one of the audience members tried to help him with the shoe lace and he kept trying to tie her long, blond hair to the now decimated chair. Here's why it worked: one single, clear idea that was engaging, developed over the course of the time, and had a bit of mystery- "what's going to happen next? The chair is in pieces, is that the end or no, no, he's trying to put it back together....!" There was a clear reason to be watching.

The final piece was a duet that involved both dance and speaking/acting. That was great because they were clearly listening to what was being said and done, they kept bringing back both topics and movements that had happened before, and both the dance and the text was at a high enough level that it was entertaining to watch/listen to on its own as well as reinforcing the other.

Ones that didn't work- a self indulgent, far too long solo wherein the woman blinked a lot (intentionally) and talked about tea- which was clearly because something needed to be said and what else was there to say? It felt like a send up of beat poets but sincere and just bad. Also, if it is going to be billed as a dance performance? Please move. I'd be willing to watch someone stay perfectly still on a stage if they had a good reason for it, but this? I'm sorry- no.

Today, however, I had a SINGING LESSON. Which was awesome. I just love my singing lessons. Particularly because we keep working on things that I am so scared of. I had my gamba with me because we had consort this afternoon (awesome- with a violone player as well. So much fun, such ridiculous clefs, I love reading off of manuscript notation: "Is that a smudge, a quaver rest, or a note?") and Jilly had me not only sing and play at the same time (Super Scary but also so. awesome. I kept holding on to notes and just rolling around in the interval. Delicious.) but also do chords and sing at the same time, identify where in the key I was, and sing on scale numbers. It's all stuff that I feel like I should be able to do and should already know down pat because of all of my music school training- but I feel like I don't so it is scary and I lose confidence quickly. We did some singing in harmony and then started on a jazz tune- "Day Dream" I think it was called. It's got a bunch of crazy chord progressions but I learned it and sang it in tune within about 5 minutes. Woo! I'm going to keep working on it this month and figure out how to play the bass line on the gamba at the same time.

It was a gorgeous, sunny, spring-like day today. Beautiful. So I took the opportunity to take a nice walk from Highbury and Islington down to Angel in order to get to consort. Such interesting shops along that road too.

After consort I met up with a friend of mine from the acting improvisation class that I took last month. He is starting up a theatre company and is looking for collaborators for the music. We'd talked really briefly about it at the weekend but talked much more fully about it over "coffee" (hot chocolate with marshmallows) today. I'm going to a rehearsal on Friday to meet the rest of the troupe and see what they've come up with so far. Our initial discussions make it seem like we're very much on the same page, so hopefully that will turn out to actually be the case!

I went to a contact jam this evening because my choreographer/dancer friend Ellie has been telling me to come and it was cool to watch and I played a bit, but mostly I didn't really feel like improvising for a whole group of people that weren't listening and communicating with the music at all. There was a guitarist there and I jammed with him for a bit which was great, but ultimately I just felt really out of place. Which is too bad.

Anyhow, all things considered? A brilliant day.

Bright Colors/Busy and Social

I have been SO busy recently. I don't think I've been at home for an evening in two weeks- though of course, going to Scotland helped with that...So I want to tell you about some of what I've been up to.

That being said, the real reason I decided to start blogging right now is because of the incredibly bright colors I happen to be wearing- red hoodie, pink yoga pants, and my delightfully warm rainbow patterned knit socks from Andy and Nancy. I think I may be a little bit blinding in this outfit.

Last night I went to the Science Museum for one of their late night events-this is the second one I have been to and this time the theme was "music" which was, as you may have guessed, right up my alley. In addition to having their regular exhibits open (and free from small children, so you get to play with all the toys too!) they also have all sorts of special events to do with their theme. My favorites from last night were the silent disco where everyone is given a pair of wireless headphones and you choose from two competing DJs, KaraUke, and kazoo making with clothes pins and rubber bands.

Silent disco is hilarious to walk by because you can't hear anything anyone is listening to because it is all through headphones and half the group is bopping around to a completely different beat than the other half. It's especially great when the two DJs have chosen music that encourages very different styles of movement- like reggae on one channel and a Ramones remix on the other.

KaraUke is karaoke with a ukulele backing band. It was ridiculous and *awesome.* I am going to go to some more of their gigs because...well, do I really need a reason? My life will not be complete until I have sung Eye of the Tiger with them.

On Monday Ella and I went to the South Bank Centre for Hide and Seek: Sandpit which is a "monthly" pervasive gaming testing ground. It's getting to the point where I've now been to enough events like this that I am recognizing a lot of people. Am I turning into a groupie a little? Yes. In addition to playing an intense version of "Mafia" I also ran into my friends Emma and Will whom I haven't seen in six months since they left on a train trip through Russia and the rest of Europe and then moved to Bristol. What were they doing in London? Clearly they showed up for the express purpose of catching up with me...

On Tuesday I went to Gwen and Rob's friend's album launch which Rob was doing the sound for. Gwen and I also spent Tuesday afternoon talking to an accountant friend of hers about how to do taxes in the UK. He was incredibly generous with his time and we both feel both more relaxed about the whole tax situation and far more knowledgeable.

On Friday I took Meredith to a game run by Fire-Hazard called "Survivor Sports" which basically boils down to dodge ball in the dark with glow sticks. It was totally sweaty and fun.

Saturday was another Jezebel meet up followed by scrabble with Rob and Gwen. (I lost, not as badly as possible, but still. Gwen won. AND made cool words. Go Gwen!)

Sunday I went to the lamest Chinese New Year celebration ever with Linda, my tiny tykes co-worker. Man, they really needed a stage manager. The event was in Trafalgar square, and to be fair it had been raining, but really- don't have 5 minutes of down time followed by 15 minutes of random people painting the eyes of the dragon that no one in the audience can see, followed by really lame audience participation (clue- if the giant crowd isn't cheering for you and hasn't yet done so at all- don't heckle us. It doesn't create goodwill between the audience and you. It creates quite a lot of ill-will actually.) Linda and I were out in the rain for over an hour and they finally started doing a dragon dance for 2 minutes but cut that short to do another photo call, so we left. But we had a really nice time chatting! So it wasn't a total wash!

Sunday night we found out that Rob had finally gotten a job! So Gwen and Rob and I celebrated- which was bunches of fun. (Who finds out they've been hired on a Sunday? Isn't that weird?) We ended up at this delicious Belgian restaurant that I don't remember the name of. They had long, sort of communal tables, so we ended up talking to the guy next to us who is a buyer for some sort of knock off fashion house in America. He travels all the time and ended up buying us drinks because he felt so bad for us that eating at this restaurant was a treat rather than just a matter of course. He left his billfold on the table at one point and it was full of $100 bills. We were like "....right. Different world."

Oddities

1. Lavender scented tissues. I needed some kleenex (this is me we're talking about, I always need kleenex) and the nearest kleenex was in Marks and Spencer's where the cheapest tissues were lavender scented. Doesn't that seem odd? Think about it- if you need a tissue- can you smell?

2.I went to Oxford today to go visit my friend Ken and to see the Steampunk exhibition at the History of Science Museum. On my way there I found a small Doctor Who umbrella that had been lost on the tube. I carried it around all day and used it as an excellent gesticulator. It was not a good cane, however, at it was approximately one and a half feet high. I feared that the child who had lost it would want it back so at the end of the day I left it on the same tube line. Probably a better way of getting it to lost and found would have been to give it to a TFL worker, but oh well. Next time.

3. On Thursday I went to my co-worker's house for supper but was *so* hungry on the way there that I bought a small sandwich from a kiosk stand at Moorgate station. That sandwich turned out to be filled with the best chicken tikka I've ever tasted. From a random little kiosk that mostly sells chocolate bars. What? How strange is that. But sooooo tasty.

4. I took the bus to Oxford. It was, confusingly, called the Oxford Tube (it's not a tube. It's a bus. Don't be silly.) I got a little car sick on the way up (unusual for me) and fell asleep on the way back. The way back was delicious, actually. It was warm and cozy and I had two seats to myself so I curled up and fell asleep in the gently rocking darkness.

5. The steam punk exhibition was so cool. It was very small, but some of it was so amazingly intricate and delicately crafted. Tom Banwell was one of the artists. These photos don't do it justice, but the link there should go to a fire helmet that was luscious with the leather work. Gorgeous. I also really liked Sydney Padua's comics.I bought this mug because I thought it was so funny

Because I do things like this

On Friday I went with a friend of a friend of a friend to Regents park where giant tree houses are being built for a gallery opening tomorrow. I don't really understand why it is all being built, but they are *beautiful.* I started out with the instrument makers but they didn't really have a good plan of what they were doing and the drills kept running out of batteries so after it stopped bucketing down with rain I went to help the wall weavers. They had a bunch of willow branches donated so those were being kept in the boating pond which was a: a good idea to keep them all supple-like and b: a bad idea because they were covered in goose poop. Gross.

But giant basket weaving! Around a tree house! In the rain! I was super happy. We got a good two and a half feet woven together, it was very satisfying.

Lots of lovely people, but I didn't feel hipster or hippie enough to really feel totally comfortable.

Today was Ella's mom's birthday party in Highbury and that was lovely and fun, good conversations. This evening was Meredith's debut as a horn soloist with a chamber orchestra. She played wonderfully and looked beautiful. After that we went to a little middle eastern restaurant where Meredith's sister borrowed/stole my book: Watching the English by Kate Fox.

I highly recommend this book- she's a social anthropologist who has spent her career documenting what makes up Englishness. It's hilarious. While reading I keep alternating between giggling and going "Oooh." as things suddenly become clear. It's brilliant. We sat with a bunch of Serbian women at the pub and I recommended it to all of them too.